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By MARK BLUNDEN
  
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Sweetener leaves bad taste

Bitter taste of hotel stay

TENANTS from an Angel estate have turned down an opportunity to stay the night in a luxury £200-a-night hotel to discuss plans to transform their run down homes.
Islington council had been prepared to put 21 tenant organisers from the Packington Estate up at the West Lodge Hotel, in Potters Bar, at a cost to council taxpayers of almost £4,000 for the night.
The object had been to examine the bids from three rival housing associations on how they could re-build the estate.
The Packington was condemned as unsafe in 2003 after surveyors found it was built too high and was at risk from gas explosions.
Under the new plans, the estate will be levelled and rebuilt with a percentage of private housing.
The council thought that the pleasant setting in leafy Hertfordshire would mean no distractions and help the group come to a speedy decision.
Packington Reference Group chairman Dave Roberts said: “Of course it would have been nice to stay the night in a nice hotel but the council have just been pushing and pushing us from the beginning.
“Last weekend we voted unanimously not to go. We would have been happy with a smaller hall in the borough.
“It’s the council’s attitude with us. They’ve provided us with no paperwork. This is a major decision on behalf of the people on this estate but the council don’t give a damn. The way in which the council have acted is farcical.”
Mr Roberts slammed the “secretive” manner in which the council had dealt with residents.
The housing associations – Hyde Northside, Southern and Circle Anglia – would not have been represented at the hotel.
Instead an independent adviser and a council co-ordinator would have officiated proceedings.
Suggestions from the developers have included diverting the Regent’s Canal, which runs along one side of the estate.
The tenants claim they have not been allowed to see any details of the bids until tomorrow (Saturday).
But the council last night maintained the full plans, including costings, have been on public display for months.
The argue that more than 300 people have been to see the bid details at the Town Hall.
Once the reference group decides on the housing association they want to develop the Packington, a final ballot will then be put to tenants and leaseholders.
Reference Group vice chairman Terry Lewis said the group would have “gone in blind” to the negotiations without the full facts at their disposal.
A council spokeswoman said that it was “not unusual” for people involved in major decisions like this being taken to this particular hotel.
Councillor Jyoti Vaja, the borough’s housing supremo, said: “We want residents to be as involved as possible in the transfer and are committed to making the process as open and transparent as we can.
“Since the selection process began in April, residents have been involved at every stage of the process.
“They had access to the bids the following working day after they were submitted on November 4, as did their independent advisor who will be presenting their findings in at the selection day on Saturday.
“All residents have been free to view the documents in the Town Hall over the past two weeks and we are visiting them with the proposals as well.”



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